


Conversations About A Girl

by Swords_and_Parasols



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 01:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swords_and_Parasols/pseuds/Swords_and_Parasols
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How do you help your friends when you know they might kill people because of your help?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conversations About A Girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [glassbomb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glassbomb/gifts).



> Set between episodes 2 and 3 of season 2.

She couldn’t believe he had asked her to do this. Not so soon.

Stefan and Elena had both called her several times since that night, saying they needed to talk about Caroline, and about Damon, but she hadn’t replied. She hadn’t been able to. Now Stefan had cornered her at the Grill, and she couldn’t put it off anymore.

“Stefan, she killed a man. It was practically the first thing she did.”

Stefan reached across the table to take her hand, but stopped, and Bonnie self-consciously lowered her hands to her lap.

“Bonnie, I know this is hard for you, but it’s hard for Caroline, too.” Stefan leaned forward, resting his arms on the table, keeping his voice low. His face had that earnest look that was so hard to reject. The one that said he wanted to save everyone, but right now, you were all that mattered. It would be annoying if he weren’t so incredibly genuine about it. “She was alone, and she was scared. There was no one to tell her what had happened to her, and no one to help her control her instincts. But that’s changed. I’ll help her. Vampires can live without attacking humans, and I’ll teach her how to.”

“Stefan, you…” Bonnie paused, realizing she was starting to raise her voice, and she leaned down, almost hissing. “Even you can’t always control yourself. Remember?”

“I do, and I’m sorry you had to see that. I know you’ve had very bad experiences with vampires, Bonnie, and Damon and I have been responsible for a lot of it, but Bonnie, I got through that because the people who cared about me didn’t leave me, and Caroline will too. But if she thinks she’s lost you, if she feels she’s losing her ties and is completely cut off from her life before this, then she may really become what you’re afraid of.”

Bonnie glanced at the bar, where Damon was talking to Alaric and pretending he wasn’t eavesdropping. “Is that what happened to him?”

Stefan hesitated. “A lot of things happened to Damon, some of which I might have made worse. But it won’t happen with Caroline, because she won’t be alone. She has Elena, and she has me. And, hopefully, she has you, too. She doesn‘t want to lose you, Bonnie.”

She didn’t want to lose Caroline, either. But it felt like she already had. But she’d been talking to him only a couple hours earlier, and he was the first boy she’d felt comfortable flirting with since Ben. They’d talked about meeting at the Grill after he got off work. And the next time she’d seen him, he’d been on the ground, dead, and Caroline had been covered with his blood.

“Is it the spell?” Stefan asked. “Emily made a number of rings and amulets, so we thought it wouldn’t be hard. But she had years of experience. If it’s going to hurt you-”

“It’s not that.” She had looked up the spell that allowed Stefan and Damon to walk in the sun the next morning. It wasn’t an easy spell, and she wouldn’t be able to do much magic for a while after she did it, but she could cast it. But Caroline had had Damon’s blood in her system that night because she’d convinced Elena to let Damon do it, and Katherine had learned about it because Bonnie herself had told her, thinking she was Elena. She hated Damon, and so much that had happened to the people she loved had happened because of him, but letting herself be ruled by her feelings for her friends had contributed to this situation. She didn’t know if she could cast the spell and trust that Caroline wouldn’t hurt more people not yet.

But if she didn’t do it, then she might never get Caroline back, and might lose Elena, too.

She sighed. “I can do it. It isn’t an easy spell, but I can do it. I just don’t know if I should, not yet. You can’t always be with her, Stefan.”

“I know, and that’s why she needs this. So she knows that we trust her to control herself. And Bonnie, you may not be sure of your friendship right now, but if you completely reject her, there may be no returning from it, and it will hurt you as much as it hurts her.”

“It will have to be something heavy, and solid. Emily could enchant more delicate objects because she was so experienced.” And powerful. So much more powerful than Bonnie herself was, at least for now. “It should be metal, too.”

“I already thought of that.” Stefan pulled out a large, ugly ring. “It’s not very pretty, but it was the best thing we had available.”

Bonnie took the ring, examining it. “It’s hideous, matches nothing she owns, and will be impossible to accessorize with. But it will work.”

“I doubt Caroline Forbes has ever met a piece of jewelry she couldn’t accessorize. Tomorrow morning, then?”

“Fine. I can’t be gentle with her, I can’t pretend I’ve forgotten what she did, and I don’t think I can be her best friend right now but I can do this, at least, for now. But Stefan? After this, just…leave me alone for a while. Give me some time to think about things. About everything that’s happened and…everyone. Don’t ask me to help you or cast spells for you. Let me have some space.”

He nodded, standing up. “I understand. And thank you. But Bonnie, separating yourself from the people you love won’t make all this go away.”

“I know.” She did know. But she also knew that she couldn’t decide what to do, figure out how she felt, if she kept getting swept up in the Salvatores’ business every time she turned around. Elena and Caroline were her best friends, and even if she wasn’t always comfortable with him, Stefan was her friend, too. But she couldn’t separate them from the things they were involved in, and so she had to separate herself from them, too. For now. “I know.”


End file.
